Nottingham Trent University

About: Nottingham Trent University is a education organization based out in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Addiction. The organization has 4702 authors who have published 12862 publications receiving 307430 citations. The organization is also known as: NTU & Trent Polytechnic.

COVID-19 suicidal behavior among couples and suicide pacts: Case study evidence from press reports.

Abstract: The novel coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) disease is not a typical physical illness. It has caused economic, social, and mental crises in a very short period of time (Usman et al., 2020). It has swept across countries and can affect anybody young or old, abled or disabled (Mamun & Griffiths, 2020a). It has spread internationally and has affected all aspects of human life. The World Health Organization declared the virus outbreak as a pandemic in March 2020, and at the time of writing (May 6, 2020) there were over 3,588,000 confirmed cases and over 247,500 deaths reported globally (World Health Organization, 2020). However, many personal aspects have been affected by the pandemic (e.g., physical health, societal wellbeing, financial wellbeing, etc.), all which have a direct link to mental suffering among some individuals (Montemurro, 2020; Jahanshahi et al., 2020; Sakib et al., 2020). The most extreme consequence of mental instability can result in suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and actual suicide (Jahan et al., 2020; Mamun & Griffiths, 2020b). Like previous pandemics (e.g., 2002 SARS [severe acute respiratory syndrome; Cheung et al., 2008]), the present COVID-19 pandemic appears to be leading to higher suicidality. There are many reasons for COVID-19-related suicides including the fear of getting the disease, the fear of passing the disease onto others, mental instability (e.g., depression, anxiety and/or stress) as a consequence of quarantine, isolation, economic hardship, and the unavailability of food and alcohol based on published reports (Dsouza et al., 2020; Goyal et al., 2020; Mamun & Griffiths, 2020a; Mamun & Ullah, 2020; Thakur & Jain, 2020). However, another worrying type of suicide cases concerns couples dying together that are related to COVID-19, the majority of which concern suicide pacts by couples. Here, we present six cases in chronological order of couple suicides and attempted suicides relating to COVID-19 comprising 12 individuals from four countries (i.e., Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, and the US). Case 1 (April 2, 2020; Source – BBC, 6 April 2020 ): An American couple from Lockport, Illinois – Patrick Jesernik (aged 54 years) and partner Cheryl Schriefer (aged 59) – were involved in a COVID-19-related murder-suicide by gunshot. Mr. Jesernik shot his partner (who had been suffering from severe breathing problems) before killing himself. He was scared that he had been infected with COVID-19 from his girlfriend. Both had been tested for COVID-19 but it appears neither had received their results before their deaths. The autopsies showed that neither was infected with COVID-19 (Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52192842). Case 2 (April 2, 2020: Source – Hindustan Times, 6 April 2020 ): An Indian elderly couple from Amritsar, India – Balwinder Singh (aged 65) and his wife Gurinder Kaur (age not reported) – committed suicide by consuming a poisonous substance together. Their suicide note said there was tension because of COVID-19. Their suicide note simply said: “We are finishing our lives. No one is responsible for this. There has been a tension due to coronavirus. We both were also ill”. The police reported they were not actually infected with COVID-19 (Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/covid-fear-elderly-couple-ends-life-in-amritsar/story-6jdldsvs4NIlvpPRo71HbJ.html). Case 3 (April 4, 2020: Source – New Indian Express, 5 April 2020 ): At Tiruchy International Airport, India, a Malaysian couple – Subramaniam (aged 65) and his wife Lalitha (aged 55) – both attempted suicide together by swallowing sleeping pills because they were not provided seats on a special COVID-19 rescue flight back to their home country of Malaysia. They were told by airport officials that their names were not listed on the flight and were dismayed by the responses from embassy officials and attempted to take their own lives. The suicide attempt was prevented by the police (Source: https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2020/apr/05/no-seats-in-special-rescue-flight-malaysian-couple-attempts-suicide-2125937.html). Case 4 (April 16, 2020: Source – Telegraph India, 17 April 2020 ): A young newlywed couple from Uttarakhand, India – Ashok Kumar (aged 24) and his wife Rajju Devi (age nor reported) – both committed suicide together by hanging themselves from a tree. Mr. Kumar was quarantined (after returning from Punjab) at a school that had been turned into an isolation center near his village. Although he had no COVID-19 symptoms, he was prevented from going home and his wife was being pressured and harassed by neighbors to leave the village because they all thought Mr. Kumar had COVID-19. The wife visited her husband at the quarantine center and both felt the situation was hopeless so committed suicide together in a forest nearby the center (Source: https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/hounded-over-coronavirus-couple-kill-themselves/cid/1765526) Case 5 (April 24, 2020: Source – Manab Zamin, 24 April 2020 ): A poverty-stricken young couple from Bangladesh –Shamim (aged 30) and wife Renoka Begum (aged 24) – committed suicide together by hanging themselves in their house. They had a three-year old child and they were fighting poverty exacerbated by the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 lockdown (Source: https://mzamin.com/article.php?mzamin=223588). Case 6 (March 4, 2020: Source – Deccan Herald, 4 May 2020 ): A man from Bihar, India – Ramesh Shah (aged 35) – committed suicide by hanging himself after his wife (Suman, age not reported) committed suicide by setting herself on fire. The couple were unable to pay back a loan on a truck they had bought because they were unable to work during the COVID-19 lockdown. After an argument concerning their finances, Suman deliberately set herself on fire. The husband tried to save his wife but she died at hospital. The husband was so distraught that he then killed himself. The couple left behind two young children (aged 7 and 10) (Source: https://www.deccanherald.com/national/east-and-northeast/coronavirus-lockdown-30-unable-to-repay-loan-couple-commits-suicide-in-bihar-833285.html).

Organizing for Individuation: Alternative Organizing, Politics and New Identities

Abstract: Organization theorists have predominantly studied identity and organizing within the managed work organization. This frames organization as a structure within which identity work occurs, often as a means of managerial control. In our paper our contribution is to develop the concept of individuation pursued through prefigurative practices within alternative organizing to reframe this relation. We combine recent scholarship on alternative organizations and new social movements to provide a theoretical grounding for an ethnographic study of the prefigurative organizing practices and related identity work of an alternative group in a UK city. We argue that in such groups, identity, organizing and politics become a purposeful set of integrated processes aimed at the creation of new forms of life in the here and now, thus organizing is politics is identity. Our study presents a number of challenges and possibilities to scholars of organization, enabling them to extend their understanding of organization and identity in the contemporary world.

A global analysis of terrestrial plant litter dynamics in non-perennial waterways

Abstract: Perennial rivers and streams make a disproportionate contribution to global carbon (C) cycling. However, the contribution of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which sometimes cease to flow and can dry completely, is largely ignored although they represent over half the global river network. Substantial amounts of terrestrial plant litter (TPL) accumulate in dry riverbeds and, upon rewetting, this material can undergo rapid microbial processing. We present the results of a global research collaboration that collected and analysed TPL from 212 dry riverbeds across major environmental gradients and climate zones. We assessed litter decomposability by quantifying the litter carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and oxygen (O2) consumption in standardized assays and estimated the potential short-term CO2 emissions during rewetting events. Aridity, cover of riparian vegetation, channel width and dry-phase duration explained most variability in the quantity and decomposability of plant litter in IRES. Our estimates indicate that a single pulse of CO2 emission upon litter rewetting contributes up to 10% of the daily CO2 emission from perennial rivers and stream, particularly in temperate climates. This indicates that the contributions of IRES should be included in global C-cycling assessments.